FACT Classic Mix: Holly Herndon

FACT has been running our weekly mix series since April 2008, so with hundreds of brilliant sessions gathering dust in the vaults, we decided to dig through the archives and pull out some of our very favorites.

Holly Herndon doesn’t do a lot of mixes, in fact as far as we can tell, her 2013 FACT mix is the only one out there. This makes it a prime candidate for re-evaluation as part of the FACT Classic Mix series. The Oakland-based academic should need no introduction at this point – back in 2013 she was riding high on the success of her acclaimed Movement LP, and Herndon has gone from strength to strength since.

Last year, she moved from her home at RVNG to indie heavyweight 4AD and released her most fully-realized work to date, the knotty, challenging Platform. It continued to explore the themes of technology and futurism that has guided her past work, but added topics such as systemic inequality, surveillance states and neo-feudalism. Ambitious, certainly, but Herndon filters these themes through a mesh of disparate influences, from minimal techno to musique concrète.

This mix shines a spotlight on some of these influences, and dots around the map accordingly, welding together tracks from Norwegian avant garde legend Maja Ratkje, techno don Jamal Moss (aka Hieroglyphic Being), Raster Noton’s Byetone, experimental composer Trevor Wishart and more. As you might expect, it’s a breathtaking journey through experimental sound and rhythm and well worth 40 minutes of your time.